On this week’s episode, we recast Enemy of the State. What’s strange about this movie is that it was a complete hit by box office standards, but one that very few people remember a whole lot about. Whenever I told a friend about the next movie we were doing, all of them had a delayed reaction, followed by, “…oh, the one with Will Smith? I never saw it” Full disclosure: I saw it when it first came out, and I couldn’t even recall the plot of it.

Teen Wolf is a 1985 American fantasy-comedy film* starring Michael J. Fox and nobody else’s name that you’d recognize. After all, the budget for this teen classic was a shade over a million dollars (1.2). Even though there may not be any other stars in this movie, it actually works in its favor. It adds to the small town feel of everything, which I think makes the fantasy aspect of this a little more…believable (for lack of a better term). If there was a kid who was in a New York City high school transforming into a wolf every night, it’s hard to believe that it wouldn’t be some sort of international story.

On this week’s episode, we discuss the 1998 movie Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton. This movie was really the kick off for the huge poker boom of the late 90’s/early 00’s, and also happens to the be the first movie that we ever recasted way back in the day. Mike and I are both avid poker players so given those two factors, this pod’s a bit longer than most.

This week we switch it up a little. A couple months ago, we were recording a pod and on a whim we decided to watch a movie, then do an instant recast afterward. It’s a little shorter because we don’t do an introduction, we just sorta jump right into it.

I think Contact was maybe the first alien movie I’ve ever seen where the aliens aren’t actually shown. In retrospect, that was probably a good call, because aliens in sci-fi movies don’t tend to age particularly well. The only ones that do are ones that are only shown in flashes and shadows. This was also the first movie that I remember where it represents first contact with aliens to be something more than just aliens hellbent on eradicating humans from the planet.